Imperious CEO relents, will decrease price of AIDS drug

Turing Pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shrkeli has relented and said he will decrease the price of a drug used by AIDS patient that he planned to increase by 5,000 percent (Photo courtesy of Creative Commons)

Well, the internet community learned what every Jewish and Catholic mother already knows: shame works.

After a public relations backlash against the imperious CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company has backtracked on its planned 5,000 percent increase for a drug used by AIDS and cancer patients, CNBC reports.

CEO Martin Shkreli for days stood by increasing the drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Turing will not say how much the pill now will cost, however.

The drug is a kill switch for toxoplasmosis, a food-bourne infection particularly dangerous for people who have weakened immune system.

The disease attacks AIDS and cancer patients, but others, such as pregnant women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Turing purchased the right to Daraprim, a drug around since the 1950, and said the increase was needed for research and development.

But Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton denounced it and used the increase as a platform to announce her pharmaceutical plan. AIDS advocates and disease experts also said it showed why there needed to be drug price control in the U.S. like there is in Europe and Canada.

In the meantime, Shkreli called a journalist a moron on Twitter for asking him about the price and went on news shows saying that he loves capitalism and big profits. Critics pounced on his Twitter feed which showed an opulent lifestyle of helicopter transportation and $9,000 bottles of wine.

Shkreli easily was the most hated man on the Internet for at least this week, pundits said.

“I think in the society we live in today it’s easy to want to villainize people, and obviously we’re in an election cycle where this is very, very tough topic for people and it’s very sensitive. And I understand the outrage,” Shkreli told CNBC.

Clinton outlined a plan she said would limit how much patients have to pay out of pocket for medications each month.

But in a rare moment of near humility, Shkreli also told CNBC that “mistakes were made” in how he tried to justify the price increase.

“I think that it makes sense to lower the price in response to the anger that was felt by people,” said Shkreli, 32, said.

Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York bought the drug from Impax Laboratories in August for $55 million and raised the price. Shkreli said Tuesday the price would be lowered to allow the company to break even or make a smaller profit.

Shkreli said earlier this week that drugs like Daraprim will not exist if small companies can’t get a return on their investment. But the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association said cost increase was unjustifiable for the medically vulnerable patient population in need of this medication.”